Database of Legislation

2. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context requires otherwise –

“authorised officer” means any forest officer or other officers or person authorised in writing by the Minister or Director to exercise any power or to discharge any duty under this Act or any subsidiary legislation made under this Act;

“chief executive officer” means the chief officer of the administrative, professional and technical services of a local authority by whatever name called;

“Committee” means the National Forestry Advisory Committee;

“community forest reserve” means a forest reserve established as a community forest reserve under the provisions of Part V of this Act;

“declared village land forest reserve” means an area of village land declared to be a village land forest reserve under subsection (2) of section 32 or section 33 of this Act;

“Director” means the person for the time being exercising the functions of the Director of Forestry;

“Division” means the Division responsible for Forestry matters;

“domestic user permit” means a permit granted to a villager by a village council managing a village land forest to enter the village forest and take away and use timber and other forest produce for domestic purposes;

“Executive Agency” has the meaning ascribed to it by the Executive Agencies Act, 1997;

“existing rights” means the rights determined by the Minister or a local authority to be existing rights under subsection (9) of section 24 of this Act and shall be taken to include all such incidental, ancillary, subsidiary and derivative rights and interests as are necessary to enable the existing rights to be enjoyed and exercised;

“export certificate” means an export certificate issued under section 58 of this Act;

“firewood” includes parts of trees made up into bundles or loads, or cut up in a manner in which it is usual to cut wood for burning and refuse wood generally, but does not include sound straight timber logs or poles of any kind;

“forest” means an area of land with at least 10 % tree crown cover, naturally grown or planted and or 50 % or more shrub and tree regeneration cover and includes all forest reserves of whatever kind declared or gazetted under this Act and all plantations;

“forestry dedication covenant” means the covenant referred to in section 19 of this Act;

“forest management plan” means the plans referred to in section 11 of this Act;

“forest produce” means anything which is produced by or from trees or grows in a forest or is naturally found in a forest and includes bamboos, bark, bast, branchwood, canes, charcoal, earth, fibres, firewood, fruits, galls, gums, honey, latex, laths, leaves, litter, natural varnish, peat, plants. Poles, reads, resin, roots, rushes, sap, sawdust, seeds, slabs, timber, trees, thatch, wattles, wax, wild silk, withies, wood shes, wood oil, and any other living or inanimate object declared by notice in the Gazette to be forest produce for purposes of this Act;

“forest resources” means forest and forest produce;

“forest officer” means an officer appointed under this Act to exercise any of the functions allocated to a forestry officer by this Act;

“Fund” means the Tanzania Forest Fund established by section 79 of this Act;

“gazetted village land forest reserve” means a declared village land forest reserve gazetted under section 35 of this Act;

“general land” has the meaning ascribed to it by the Land Act, 1999;

“grader” means a person authorised by the Director to be a grader under section 79 of this Act;

“graded timber” means timber graded and marked or passed unmarked in accordance with the provisions of this Act and any regulations made thereunder;

“Group” means a community forest management group established under section 42 or recognised under section 43 of this Act;

“holder of a right of occupancy” means holder of a right of occupancy described under the Village Land Act, 1999 and the Land Act, 1999.

“inspector” means a person authorised by the Director to be an inspector under section 60 of this Act;

“investigator” means an investigator appointed under section 24 of this Act;

“joint management agreement” means the agreement referred to in section 16 of this Act;

“livestock” means cattle, horse, donkeys, mules, pigs, sheep, goats and camels;

“Licensing officer” means an officer empowered to issue licence under this Act;

“local authority” means a district authority or an urban authority;

“local authority forest reserve” means a forest reserve declared under section22 of this Act to be a local authority forest reserve;

“local user zone” means the local user zones referred to in paragraph (d) of section 11 of this Act;

“log” means the stem of a tree or a length of a stem or branch after felling crosscutting and trimming, but does not include a pole;

“Minister” means the minister for the time being responsible for forests;

“Ministry” means the ministry for the time being responsible for forests;

“national forest reserve” means a forest reserve declared under section 22 of this Act to be a national forest reserve;

“new right” means a right declared to be a new right under section 25 of this Act;

“notice of intention” means a notice referred to in section 23;

“permit” means a permit issued pursuant to the provisions of Part VII of this Act;

“plantation” means a forest of not less than five hectares which has been planted and is developed and managed by human agency;

“private forests” means the forests referred to in Part IV of this Act and includes a plantation;

“research permit” means a research permit issued under the provisions of this Act to undertake research in a forest reserve or in connection with protected wild plants and protected wild animals;

“reserved tree” means a tree reserved under section 65 of this Act;

“right of occupancy” means a title to the use and occupation of land and includes the title of a Tanzanian citizen of African descent or a community of Tanzanian citizens of African descent using or occupying land in accordance with customary law;

“sensitive area” means
(a) catchment area;
(b) an area reknown for its high bio diversity;
(c) mangrove area;

“stop order” means an order made under section57 of this Act;

“timber” means any wood or tree which has falled or has been felled or cut off and all wood whether unsawn, hewn, sawn or machined, split, or otherwise cut up or fashioned and shall include lumber, flooring strips, shingles, and sleepers but does not include any article manufactured from such wood or firewood;

“tree” includes palms, bamboos, canes, shrubs, bushes, climbers, forest seedlings, transplants, and the re-growth thereof of all ages and all kinds and any part;

“Trustees” means the Trustees of the Tanzania Forest Fund appointed under section 79 of this Act;

“village assembly” means in relation to a village, the village assembly of that village;

“village council” means in relation to a village, the village council of that village;

“village forest management area” means the area established in accordance with the provisions of section 39 of this Act;

“village land forest reserve” means a forest reserve declared under section 32 and 23 or gazetted under section 35 of this Act;